Round 09: Brno – Czech Republic

Czech Republic

July 22, 2012

Rea and Aoyama Out at Brno

Jonathan Rea (Honda World Superbike Team) had a tough day of competition in the 2012 FIM Superbike World Championship races at Brno in the Czech Republic, after a collision with another rider while in a podium position in race one and then fighting hard against traction issues to take a top twelve finish in race two.

Jonathan Rea

Jonathan Rea

Marco Melandri (BMW) won both races at Brno, to close the gap to championship leader Max Biaggi (Aprilia) significantly.

Rea had been sixth in Superpole qualifying, a good result considering his recent lack of track data at Brno, and he looked set for a possible podium place until he fell while trying to pass race leader Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) at the apex of a corner when Sykes had started to drift wide, three laps from the end. The riders collided, Rea fell and Sykes carried on to score second. Rea was 12th in race two after he experienced a severe lack of edge grip and his combined Brno results dropped him to fifth overall in the championship standings.

Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda World Superbike Team) was taken out in race one when Leandro Mercado (Kawasaki) fell under braking and both bike and rider pushed Aoyama wide, eventually causing him to fall. In race two a technical issue prevented Hiroshi from finishing the race. He is now 17th in the standings.

Next round is at the evocative circuit of Silverstone on Sunday 5 August.

Parkes On The Podium As Lowes Scores Well

Broc Parkes (Ten Kate Racing Products Honda) put in a podium performance at the eighth round of the FIM Supersport World Championship, taking third place in the Czech Republic to boost his confidence for the final few races of the season and his overall points total.

Sam Lowes (Bogdanka PTR Honda) was one place behind Parkes in fourth in a dramatic race at Brno, but Lowes is still the closest challenger to championship leader and second place rider today, Kenan Sofuoglu (Kawasaki).

The race was started then red flagged because of a start line incident and in the restart eventual race winner Fabien Foret (Kawasaki) put in a front running performance until the 14th lap, when Sofuoglu passed him, with Parkes right behind. At that point sixth place rider Ronan Quarmby suffered a big highside, and with his machine stranded on the track and almost on the racing line, the race was red flagged. With results going back to the 13th lap, Foret was declared the winner, Sofuoglu second and Parkes third. It was Broc’s second podium finish of the season.

Lowes worked hard to get to a top four place at what is not one of his favourite circuits and he is now 23 points behind Sofuoglu in the current rankings, 137 to 114. Foret is third on 108 and Jules Cluzel (PTR Honda), who was fifth today at Brno, sits fourth on 95. Parkes is fifth on 82.

Quarmby was credited with sixth in the classification today because of the count back of one lap rule in a red flagged race and that score puts him eighth in the points.

Gabor Talmacsi (PRORACE Honda) treated the Brno race as a home round and was 19 seconds from the winning time, in 12th place. The only remaining Honda points scorer was Valentin Debise (SMS Racing Honda) in 14th place today.

Raffaele de Rosa (Lorini Honda) was 16th, Balazs Nemeth (Racing Team Toth Honda) went 17th, and Imre Toth (Racing Team Toth Honda) 19th. Despite starting behind the pace car for the second start of the WSS race, Martin Jessopp (Riders PTR Honda) finished two places from last, in what was a lonely race for the most part.

Roberto Tamburini (Lorini Honda) and Pawel Szkopek (Bogdanka Honda PTR) crashed out of the race, while Massimo Roccoli (Kuja Racing Honda) and Mathew Scholtz (Bogdanka PTR Honda) each had to retire, Scholtz with a clutch issue.

“It’s been a really frustrating weekend because this is one of my favourite circuits and the feeling was not like in previous years – it felt completely different. We worked hard all weekend and got quite close in race one. The conditions were unpredictable at the start, but I found a rhythm and some pace and was battling for the lead. Tom Sykes ran wide and I was on the inside when he cut back and I got ejected, which was unfortunate because we were in a good podium position. In race two I felt something wrong with the bike from the very start. I just had no grip from the rear, but we’ll have to look at the data to confirm that it was just the tyre. I suffered a massive loss of grip on the edge, under acceleration, and tried a lot of different styles to see if anything worked, but it was all I could do to hang on to 12th place. The results are not what I want to go racing for and I’m really disappointed about the weekend. The last few races I’ve felt like I’m on a race winning package, but this weekend was definitely below average.”

“Not such a nice Sunday. In the first race, another rider crashed into me so I crashed, too, and that was not so good. In the second race the conditions were better so we wanted to try some things on the bike to get a better position, but after the fourth lap the bike stopped in turn one, so finally we could not do anything. It was not really a happy end to the weekend, but we had more of a positive feeling yesterday so I hope that this is a good direction for us to follow. Now I go to race at the Suzuka 8-hour, but when I come back at Silverstone I hope we can be stronger again.”

“I am really happy and first of all I would like to thank the guys in the team for working over the past couple of weeks to give me a bike to allow me to be at the front and in the battle for the win. That is where I want to be. We were a little bit unfortunate for the red flag, because I felt that I was saving my attack for the end. The tyres were still really good, but I am happy for the confidence to be with there again and it is important for me to be on the podium and fighting for wins again and we can look now to the end of the year and see what we can do.”

“I knew that this track was not good for me. It was my worst track last year, but to be fair I had quite good pace on Friday and good pace yesterday, even if we lost a lot of momentum with a few technical problems. Because of the less than perfect qualifying I had to pass some people and got in a battle with Cluzel, which frustrated me because he was my team-mate. By the time I got past him I was three and a half seconds behind, but in the next ten laps I only lost 0.5 seconds more. I had the pace to stick in there if not to beat them, but if you are there, who knows? Kenan actually got dropped to second after the red flag so it could have been a lot worse. Fourth is my joint worst finish of the year so it is not that bad really.”

“I do not know what was wrong, but I never rode before with this lap time here in the race. Yesterday with the race tyre we did a really good practice. I did 11 laps in 2’04 low and for the race I could only do one lap on 2’04.7 and was in fifth place.”

“I was enjoying the race and fighting in the top six with my teammates. I do not know what happened with the crash but I have hurt my back and I am very sore. As a precaution I am having it checked by medics now.”

“I had a highside crash because I touched the green part on the outside of one corner a little. I did not know when I opened the throttle and I went straight off. We will come back looking for a better result at Silverstone.”

“I have had better meetings and I just struggled with it all weekend. This is was a track that I have really not gelled with. My clutch went after the first start and I came in and the boys managed to get one changed quickly but I just sort of missed the re-start of the race and had to go out behind the pace car. The rest of them were gone to turn two or three by the time I got out. It was a lonely race for me so I am looking forward to the next weekend.”

“I am very disappointed to retire out of a points scoring finish. I got away OK and was building my pace and effort and moving up through the race. I did not want to crash. My clutch then had a problem and I had to pull in. We have shown we can challenge for points and will be ready for Silverstone in two weeks time.”

"I am frustrated to have crashed out early on as I think today I could have scored points. We have shown potential and I will do my best at the next round. Thank you for all the Polish support here at Brno, I only wish I could have scored a good result and I promise I will keep trying."